Deadline reports that Bill Cosby has been cut from Painted Down, a documentary about black stuntmen and the last project to maintain ties with him while the comedian was publicly accused of drugging and assaulting dozens of women.
Painted Down, which explores the practice of using white stuntmen in blackface to stand in for black actors, will no longer include an interview with Cosby in the movie, and has removed a tribute to the comedian from their website.
"Cosby is no longer attached to the project," said producer Nonie Robinson. "We were the last project standing behind him, but now with Whoopi [Goldberg] and CAA pulling the plug, we must also disassociate and cut all ties with Cosby. It's the right thing to do in light of the recent court deposition being made public."
Robinson is talking about the fact that Whoopi Goldberg said that she's changed her mind about Cosby and now suspects that he is guilty. "I gotta say, all of the information that's out there kinda points to 'guilt'," she said on the View last week. Before that, she and her co-host Raven-Synomé both said they stood by Cosby until he was proven guilty.
Last year, Painted Down told Deadline they would keep the interview Cosby in the film. Cosby was one of the first actors to speak out against using white stuntmen in blackface, and demanded his own black stunt double on the set of the 1960s series I Spy. "If it hadn't been for Cosby, I don't think there would have been a Black Stunemen's Association," said Willie Harris, the BSA president.
[via Deadline]
